My Daughter Broke Her Front Tooth

My daughter had a bicycle accident and ended up chipping off a large part of her front tooth. I went to see her pediatric dentist. He did an emergency appointment. He did say that the tooth and root is fine, but that if we didn’t want the chip there, he could place a dental crown on it. Though, he doesn’t have an available appointment for six weeks. When I expressed concern about the wait time, he said that the nerves needed to calm down before he did the treatment anyway. Is this true? I’d hate for her to go with a chipped tooth for so long if it is not necessary.

Brooke

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Dear Brooke,

There is no reason to wait. My guess is that your daughter’s dentist is saying that because his schedule is full and he doesn’t want you going somewhere else for treatment. I would go ahead and get this taken care of now.

I also do not agree with his treatment recommendation. If there is nothing wrong with the root or the tooth itself other than the chip, than a dental crown is an overtreatment. Plus, you will find that dental insurance only covers stainless steel crowns on children, which would be unattractive. You can get a porcelain crown, but will have to pay an additional cost.

The better treatment for a chipped tooth would be to repair the chip with dental bonding. I’ve posted an example image of this above. It may be that he doesn’t know how to do that, and that is why he is recommending the more familiar procedure of a dental crown. Not many pediatric dentists invest in studying cosmetic dentistry.

My suggestion is that you find a cosmetic dentist who also treats children to do the bonding. This is an advanced cosmetic procedure that has to be done freehand. You want someone with the training and skills so that the bonding will blend in naturally with the natural portion of the tooth.

This blog is brought to you by West Seneca Cosmetic Dentist Dr. Carl Embury.